An international job racket was on Sunday busted by immigration officials following the arrest of three persons who landed at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) from Malaysia with fake travel documents.
The accused Mithun Bhai Tulsibhai Khunt, 45, a resident of Surat in Gujarat, was caught soon after he landed at KIA from Kuala Lumpur on Saturday night.
A. Sampath Kumar, immigration officer, checked the travel documents. He saw that the seal and signature of Mumbai immigration officials were tampered with. On suspicion, he detained Khunt and cross-checked with his Mumbai counterparts. He learnt that documents were fabricated. Officials questioned Khunt.
He claimed to be a high school dropout. He had been sent by an agent, Jignesh Maaru, to Malaysia in May 2015 to work as a waiter. He travelled from Chennai to Malaysia on a tourist visa following an assurance from Maaru that he would be allowed to work in that country for three years.
When Khunt found out that he had been cheated, he began to pester Maaru that he wanted to return. After avoiding him for many days, Maaru arranged fake travel documents with forged seal and signature of Mumbai immigration officials to enable him to return.
Similarly, Chayya Dineshbhai Gondaliya, a 28-year-old woman and a pre-university dropout from Surat, was sent to Kuala Lumpur in September 2018 by Jignesh Maaru for work. But she was sent on a tourist visa. She stayed in Kuala Lumpur for four months without work and demanded that he arrange for her return. After repeated requests, Maaru handed over fake travel documents with a fake immigration seal of departure from Mumbai airport. She landed in Bengaluru on Saturday night and was caught by immigration officials.
Gondaliya told the police that she was offered a job in Malaysia by Maaru, and had gone there along with a friend in November 2018.
In another incident, the officials caught Hardeep Singh, 25, from Punjab. He was carrying fake travel documents. He told the officials that a travel agent, Kuldeep Singh, had cheated him after promising a job in Malaysia.
After paying a hefty sum, Hardeep was sent to Malaysia on a visit visa in January 2018. While returning home, Kuldeep had handed over fake travel documents to Hardeep with forged signature and seal of Delhi immigration officials.
The airport police have taken up the three cases under various sections of the Passport Act. They suspect that the trio are part of a job racket and are on the lookout for Maaru and Kuldeep.
